Typically, architectural components such as walls are designed, at least in part, to isolate the interiors of buildings from the environment. For example, the walls of a building are typically constructed so as to exclude excessive levels of water and water vapor from the interior of the building. Apart from possible discomfort of occupants of the building, excessive levels of water or water vapor may lead to impairment of materials used to construct the building. For this reason, those skilled in the art have adopted various techniques for waterproofing architectural components.
Prefabricated "peel and stick" waterproofing materials have been proposed, such as those shown in Uffner U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,478,912 and 4,537,921, and in Harkness U.S. Pat. No. 4,775,567. These materials have have included contact adhesives for adhering the materials to the exteriors of architectural components they were intended to waterproof. While these "peel and stick" materials were easy to apply under ideal circumstances, they did not conform well to irregular surfaces. Apart from this, the adhesives used to secure these materials to the architectural components often did not bond tightly or durably with the exteriors of the components.
One prior art technique for waterproofing architectural components included spreading asphaltic or bituminous materials over the components and allowing the materials to harden to form water-resistant layers. One drawback to this technique was that the water-resistant layers formed in this manner were prone to cracking as the underlying architectural components themselves expanded, contracted or cracked. Such cracking of the water-resistant layers provided water-conducting channels through the layers, thereby compromising the value of the layers as waterproofing. Attempts to prevent such cracking by adhering textile materials or felt to the exteriors of the layers were not uniformly successful.
Roberts et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,352,531 proposed a solvent mixture of a petroleum distillate and toluene used to dissolve a hydrocarbon resin and block copolymers of styrene and butadiene. The solution was applied to newly constructed basement walls to provide a water-resistant elastomeric coating on the walls.
Raskin et al. U.S. Pat. No. 2,752,275 proposed a masonry construction unit having on one surface an initial coating comprising a polyester resin and a filler; a fibrous mat bonded to the initial coating; and a finish coating on the outer surface of the fibrous mat. After eliminating any moisture in the masonry construction unit, the initial coating was applied by means, for example, of a blade or trowel. While the initial coating was in a more or less tacky state, a layer of fibrous mat material was applied thereover. Upon the surface of this mat there was then applied the finish coating. Surfaces formed in this manner have been criticized as being fragile, subject to cracking similar to that which bedeviled water-resistant layers formed from asphaltic or bitumenous materials.
K-Gall U.S. Pat. No. 4,160,058 proposed a waterproof covering device including a textile core. The textile core was covered on its external side with an external waterproof pellicle or film and was united with a base through an internal film. To manufacture the covering device, a fluid material which would produce the internal film was brought on the surface of the base. While a part of this fluid material was still in its fluid state, the textile core was laid down on it. The external pellicle apparently was formed on the textile core either before or after the textile core was laid down on the internal film. An important characteristic of this covering device lay on the fact that there remained, between the external pellicle and the internal film, a portion of non-impregnated textile which retained its flexibility.
Despite these proposals, there remains a need in the art for methods for waterproofing architectural surface in which durable waterproofing coverings are formed in situ in a relatively fast and efficient manner.